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Google Shows Two Featured Snippets For One Query https://ift.tt/2qgVbGj Some folks are noticing that Google is showing two featured snippets for a single query. It is not the multifaceted featured snippets from earlier this year where Google would show you variations of featured snippets based on multiple ways to understand the query. But instead, showing two featured snippets for one way to understand the query. Here is a screen shot from Sanket Kedari on Twitter: There are many other examples of this being spotted in the past couple days. I cannot replicate any of them. So I am wondering if this was or is a bug or if this is a real test of some sorts? Have you seen double featured snippets in this setting? Forum discussion at Twitter. SEO via Search Engine Roundtable https://ift.tt/1sYxUD0 October 29, 2018 at 06:20AM
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Google Halloween - Error 404 - Costume Not Found https://ift.tt/2OZyGVb Halloween is around the corner and Google is getting into the fun. Here is a picture from Yulia Chalyk from the Google Dublin office at a Google Halloween party wearing an awesome shirt. It says error 404 - costume not found. There are more pictures on Instagram, here are more photos from the party: This post is part of our daily Search Photo of the Day column, where we find fun and interesting photos related to the search industry and share them with our readers. SEO via Search Engine Roundtable https://ift.tt/1sYxUD0 October 29, 2018 at 05:51AM
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Google Shares How 301 Redirects Pass PageRank by @martinibuster https://ift.tt/2za02Nw Google’s John Mueller offered an interesting explanation of how a 301 redirect will pass 100% of PageRank. The SEO community has known since about 2016 that there was no PageRank loss. But this is the first time that the “how” part of it has been discussed in this much detail. Regardless of what John Mueller said, 100% PageRank does not pass through 301 redirects in all situations. 301 Redirects Cannot Always Pass 100% PageRankThe way PageRank works is that a little bit of it is lost with each link. PageRank was designed to pass less than 100% PageRank. This “decay” in PageRank was by design for a variety of reasons to do with modeling how authoritative a web page is. 301 redirects presented an interesting problem in how much PageRank to assign. Google ultimately decided to diminish the amount of PageRank that flowed from a redirect, just like any other link. In 2013, Google’s Matt Cutts alluded to one of the reasons for this choice. Matt Cutts shared in a Google Webmasters video that if Google assigned 100% PageRank through 301 redirected links, then this would open the door to manipulating Google’s PageRank. The way a publisher could exploit 301 redirects is by eliminating PageRank decay through 301 redirects. A publisher could link from their home page to all inner pages with 301 redirects and pass 100% of PageRank from link to link to link. Matt Cutts issued the following guidance on how much PageRank passes through 301 redirects at a search conference:
My Personal Experience of PageRank and RedirectsRedirect chains have traditionally been problematic for search crawlers. I suspect that’s less of an issue today. But in the past the situation was so bad that a chained redirect (when a redirect is redirected to a URL that is redirected to another URL), could case a web page to display zero PageRank in Google’s toolbar. Many years ago a very important company came to me to help them fix their zero PageRank problem. This company was a large and very important company. They were concerned about why they had zero PageRank showing on Google’s PageRank toolbar. It turned out that it was caused by excessive redirect chains. This turned out to be a bug at Google and it was subsequently fixed on their end. How Does Google Assign PageRank through 301s?That is the background to the question asked of John Mueller in a recent Webmaster Hangout. The question posed in Google’s Webmaster Hangout:
Google’s John Mueller answered:
This is a fascinating answer because Mueller introduces the concept of using the Canonical URL process for assigning PageRank. This means that there is no longer the issue of PageRank decay. As for redirect chains, John Mueller went on to caution in their use:
Do All 301 Redirects Pass 100% PageRank?No. All 301 redirects do not pass 100% PageRank. A redirect from one page to an entirely different page will result in no PageRank being passed and will be considered a soft 404. An SEO asked John Mueller in 2017 about this. There is a practice called Link Reclamation. Link Reclamation is the practice of reviewing 404 (page not found) response codes that are caused by a site linking to a page that does not exist. In theory, redirecting that link to a page that does exist will cause the PageRank to flow to the redirected page. That’s link reclamation, reclaiming an otherwise wasted link and the associated PageRank. The question posed to John Mueller was on the topic of Link Reclamation. Would redirecting links from 404 pages to existing pages not pass PageRank. “301-redirecting for 404s makes sense if you have 1:1 replacement URLs, otherwise we’ll probably see it as soft-404s and treat like a 404.” In other words, the 301 redirect will pass 100% PageRank only if the redirect was a redirect to a new page that closely matched the topic of the old page. This is interesting because it’s similar to how a canonical URL is handled. Canonical URLs are suggestions and Google does not accept the canonical suggestion if the canonicalized page is substantially different. Cleverly, this also solves the problem of dealing with a rogue publisher who would link to all their web pages with redirects in order to conserve 100% of their PageRank. Watch the Google Webmaster Hangout here. Screenshots by Author, Modified by Author Subscribe to SEJGet our weekly newsletter from SEJ's Founder Loren Baker about the latest news in the industry! SEO via Search Engine Journal https://ift.tt/1QNKwvh October 29, 2018 at 05:33AM
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More Things to Do After a Rankings Decline by @martinibuster https://ift.tt/2Ssdd5i In a webmaster hangout someone asked John Mueller what to do about algorithm update recovery. The site had suffered a loss of traffic, recovered and then taken another loss of traffic. Here is the question:
Google’s John Mueller responded:
John Mueller went on to discuss how important feedback about algorithm changes are to Google. He also highlighted how important it was to provide examples of actual keyword phrases that Google is getting wrong. Many updates feature what is known as false positives. False positives are algorithm changes that cause a site to incorrectly be seen as no longer relevant for a phrase. Traditionally this is because the site was incorrectly labeled as spammy. But with today’s algorithms it could be because the site is incorrectly seen as not relevant when in fact it is. John Mueller’s advice did not extend beyond exhorting publishers to provide feedback. That’s good advice, but in my opinion there may be additional things a publisher can do. The following are my suggestions of things a publisher can do to help communicate what their site is about. It’s Not a Medic UpdateIn a Webmaster Hangout, Google’s John Mueller specifically disavowed the medical update idea with the following comments:
I declined to call the August update “Medic” because I understood that Google updates do not generally “target” specific industries. Some in the SEO industry continue to think that Google “targets” industry niches and specific quality issues with every update. But that mindset overlooks Google’s focus on relevance. What that means is we’re probably looking at issues related to relevance. Calling it a medic update and focusing on things like E-A-T, in my opinion, did not address all the actual reasons why a site has lost positions. The Mobile EffectSometimes, some of the losses could be attributed to how users are searching, seeing or listening to search results on mobile. So if Google expands “answers” at the top of the mobile page, then unless you’re at the top of the page, you’re going to see a drop in visitors. Images and RankingsI think meaningful images could be useful. For example, if the article is about a specific topic or product, then an original photograph would be very useful. Especially if you put a caption beneath that image that describes what is happening in the image. Even if you do not have an original image, try to make that image original in some way or add context to that image with a caption or the file name. New Article SchemaGoogle’s algorithm is about relevance. So it’s important to communicate as best you can what a web page is about. If your site is publishing articles then you may wish to implement the article schema. There are WordPress plugins that handle this. But you don’t necessarily need a plugin. Just fill out the following template and add it to the end of your web page just before the closing “</body>” tag. Google has a new article schema that can be used as well. You just fill out the template and then stick it at bottom of the article, near the closing head tag. It won’t show up in the content. But Google will see it. Here is the template.
LinksLinks are still important. Relevance is more important now than ever. If your link building has consisted of obtaining links to the home page or using somewhat questionable link building topics, then you may wish to consider obtaining relevant links to relevant pages other than your home page. Losing search positions is tough. Sometimes it can be helpful to think outside of the ranking paradigm and focus on becoming a destination for a certain topic. Thinking in this manner can lead to ideas and strategies that can also lead to better rankings. Watch the Google Webmaster Hangout Here VIDEO More ResourcesScreenshots by Author, Modified by Author Subscribe to SEJGet our weekly newsletter from SEJ's Founder Loren Baker about the latest news in the industry! SEO via Search Engine Journal https://ift.tt/1QNKwvh October 29, 2018 at 05:33AM
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Google Tests Double Featured Snippets by @martinibuster https://ift.tt/2zcHWdB Several people have recently reported seeing double featured snippets in Google search results. A double featured snippet is a featured snippet with a second featured snippet beneath it. This arrangement effectively shows information from two websites and advertising in the space normally showing ten websites. Here is a screenshot of the tweet: Many others on Twitter responded that they too have spotted the double featured snippet. Here is an example of another Double Snippet: A double snippet with advertising on top results in just two organic listings and ads. Some people on Twitter complained about how it’s crowding out eight potential search listings. I asked Tony Wright, CEO of WrightIMC about this. Tony observed that double snippets represent an opportunity for search marketers.
This makes a lot of sense. The top search listing grabs the most search results. The second listing the next biggest share. From positions three and lower the click through rate decreases exponentially. It’s almost not worth ranking in those positions. Another way to look at this is that Google is likely showing these kinds of double featured snippets for results for which the user intent is clear and unambiguous. Otherwise, these the double featured snippets would crowd out the alternative user intents. Triple Panel Search ResultsBill Hunt of Back Azimuth Consulting (@billhunt) observed that Google is showing triple panels. Triple panels consist of an advertising panel on top, followed by a featured snippet panl, followed by a People Also Ask (PAA) panel. As you can see below, this effectively shows just one organic result from a single web page. That’s it. So if you liked the double featured snippets, you’re going to love the triple panels. Bill Hunt’s example search query that triggered a triple panel result is vague ((Best Smart TV’s). Google in increasingly encouraging users to drill down to more specific queries with features such as the People Also Ask panels. This results in a closer match to what users are really looking for. Does a user want a 70 inch 4k TV? Or does a user want a 40 inch smart TV? What is a “best” smart TV is an incredibly vague search query. Bill Hunt sees the opportunity and observes:
What that means is that the value of that vague query is in the drill down opportunities that Google presents to users. The real opportunity lies in scoring in the more precise search results (SERPs), for queries such as “Which brand is best for Smart TV, etc. Look for the OpportunityWhen Google makes a change, a common response is to kick a rock and lament that life’s unfair. I think it’s notable that two of the industries most respected search marketers viewed these changes as opportunities. I tend to agree. There’s no percentage is doing nothing. But there’s a lot of upside in understanding what the changes mean and the opportunities that are waiting to be discovered. More ResourcesImages by Shutterstock, Modified by Author Subscribe to SEJGet our weekly newsletter from SEJ's Founder Loren Baker about the latest news in the industry! SEO via Search Engine Journal https://ift.tt/1QNKwvh October 29, 2018 at 05:33AM
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How To Create An Express Content Benchmark With SEMrush In Under An Hour https://ift.tt/2JsmyWJ If you were a coach preparing for a football game, your strategy would include an analysis of your opponent and its key players. After all, you would not just send your team onto the field blind, not knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your rival team, would you? The same applies to content marketing and its underlying content strategy. Even though content marketing is competitive by nature, it is not uncommon to find forethought lacking in published content. As you know, your content has to be unique, meeting the needs of your audience in an entirely different way than your competitors. Clearly, to achieve such an ambitious goal you first need to know what your competitors are doing. This is where establishing a content benchmark comes into play. A content benchmark is a document that includes essential information about your competitors’ content strategies, as well as SEO data about their keywords and organic traffic. So, going back to the basics, here is how you can create a content benchmark with SEMrush in less than an hour. Content Benchmarks & Competitive SEO AnalysisYou know your audience and have honed a customer persona. You have created an exemplary editorial calendar, and the content you produce is well-researched, well-written, and well-optimized. These are essential steps in producing relevant, quality content. But with no knowledge of what your competitors are doing, it is all for naught. Content marketing has become increasingly competitive. To position well in search, you need to outdo your competitors if you are to outrank them. And to do that, you need to ask questions like: Who are the competitors I need to outrank for my main keywords? What keywords are they using that I am not? What types of content are they producing and what works well for them? A content benchmark gives you the answers to these essential questions. An express version, as described in this post, helps you achieve it in under an hour. Not having time to create one is no longer a valid excuse for not having one. With a content benchmark, you can do a complete SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) competitive analysis:
It is important to revisit and revise your content benchmark regularly. Consider it a "living document." Tools for Creating a Content BenchmarkTo create a content benchmark, all you need is two readily accessible tools. First, a spreadsheet, whether Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets; this will allow you to filter your data by search volume, traffic percentage, or any other relevant metric at a later stage. And second, SEMrush tools. Yes, there are many other tools you can use for competitive analysis. However, SEMrush provides not only a comprehensive overview but also detailed information about your competitors in a matter of minutes — perfect for creating an express content benchmark. Identify Your CompetitorsFirst things first: you need to know who your direct competitors are, meaning the ones whose rankings will come at the cost of your own. Let's begin with the SEMrush Domain Overview report. Screenshot: SEMrush Domain Analytics Overview Enter your domain name, then scroll to the section displaying Main Organic Competitors and click View Full Report. The SEMrush domain analytics tool then generates a list of your main organic competitors based on the number of keywords shared by your domain and theirs. Besides your direct competitors, it is likely that the list will also include media sites, organizations, forums, etc. It is up to you to decide whether you want to include these sites in your content benchmark. However, keep in mind that even though these other domains are not your direct competitors, the fact that they rank for a competing keyword means they are search competitors, so you should consider including them when forging your content strategy. Actions to take:
The next few steps of your content benchmark will be based on this list of competitors you have chosen. Analyze Your Competitors’ KeywordsIncreasing organic traffic with content marketing and SEO is one of the main objectives of all marketers. In fact, 61% of marketers say generating traffic is their company’s top marketing challenge, underscoring the value of the data you can pull from the list of your competitors’ keywords and the landing pages for which they rank. Imagine you had the opportunity to ask your competitors’ marketing managers about their acquisition strategies and the kind of content they are publishing to rank for specific keywords. Well, we know that is a dream that is unlikely to come true. What is more realistic is getting your hands on information about your competitors’ organic traffic with SEMrush’s organic keywords report. Suppose Google was your competitor and you wanted to find out the keywords it was using to increase traffic. This is what you would see:
Actions to take:
Analyze The Type Of Content That Works Best For Your CompetitorsAs a content marketer, besides the direct data this list generates, there is more information that you can acquire that may interest you. For example, the traffic received by the different types of content your competitors publish. But this will require a little more manual work and analysis from you. Knowing the percentage of organic traffic your competitors generate from a particular type of content is, well, pure gold for your content strategy. Would it not help to know, for example, that one of your competitors was getting most of its organic traffic from its FAQ section? This information could be vital, especially if you don’t have an FAQ section yourself! Actions to take:
This step can be rather tedious. To speed things up, sort the sheet by the column in which you have the URLs; this will group repeat URLs together in consecutive rows so that you can categorize them all in one go.
Once you are done categorizing, simply re-sort the results by Content Type to get an idea of the amount of traffic each type of content is generating for your competitors. Pro tip: For a closer look, you may add a pivot table. Once you have the new sheet, under Rows, add Content Type and URL. Under Values, add Traffic %; this gives you the exact percentage of organic traffic your competitors’ content is generating based on the categories you defined earlier. Use Keyword Gap To Discover New Content OpportunitiesWith the tedious part over, you can now simply collect data to discover new opportunities for your content strategy. But to do this, you need to know where to look. Thankfully, SEMrush’s Keyword Gap tool is pretty magical and can do everything for you. Previously called Domain vs. Domain, the Keyword Gap feature allows you to select up to five domains and compare common and exclusive keywords. Discover Common KeywordsEnter the domains of the competitors you want to analyze. You may select up to five at once. Hover over the Venn diagram between the two domains and select Common Keywords in the drop-down menu.
By default, SEMrush has set organic keywords as the search, and this will be the most relevant data you need for your content benchmark and SEO. But you also have the option of filtering for other types of keywords such as paid and PLA (Product Listing Ads). Actions to take:
In the example in the above screenshot, green is assigned to the keywords for which your competitor appears in the first three positions; blue for positions from four to 10, and light orange from 11 to 20. By organizing it this way, it helps you to visualize and pinpoint the keywords for which there is most potential to outrank your competitors. Discover Exclusive KeywordsAs valuable as common keywords are, these are keywords that you already rank for and (perhaps) whose rankings you can improve for. But what about keywords your competitors are ranking for that you are not? Another interesting feature the Keyword Gap tool offers is the possibility to look up each of your competitors’ unique keywords.
Actions to take:
Pro tip: Use this list as a quick source of inspiration for content creation. When prioritizing, the search volume of each of these keywords draws a pretty clear picture of their potential. Let Your Competitors Inspire New Content IdeasAt this point, you have collected plenty of data about your competitors' content strategy. All you have to now is analyze them properly to generate new and exciting ideas for your editorial calendar. It is all about getting inspired by your competitors. Copying content ideas isn't difficult. The trick here will be to give it a new and creative spin — one that sets you apart. By combining your ideas with the inspiration you get from your competitors, you have the advantage of an original approach that creates new pieces of unique content adapted to your company’s tone, style, and context. Actions to take:
Pro tip: Once you have completed your content benchmark, share the document with all the members of your team. This information is extremely valuable for generating new ideas for email marketing, social media, public relations, etc. The list of new content ideas is simply a plus. What is important is the new information about your competitors you were able to obtain from the content benchmark. Now that you are equipped with the information you need to defend your keyword ranking and outperform your competitors, it’s time to go out and do so! SEO via SEMrush https://ift.tt/1K8Zzbp October 29, 2018 at 03:30AM
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Building Links with Great Content - Natural Syndication Networks https://ift.tt/2OcclOw Posted by KristinTynski The debate is over and the results are clear: the best way to improve domain authority is to generate large numbers of earned links from high-authority publishers. Getting these links is not possible via:
There is no shortcut. The only way to earn these links is by creating content that is so interesting, relevant, and newsworthy to a publisher’s audience that the publisher will want to write about that content themselves. Success, then, is predicated on doing three things extremely well:
We’ve covered point 1 and point 3 on other Moz posts. Today, we are going to do a deep dive into point 2 and investigate methods for understanding and choosing the best possible places to pitch your content. Specifically, we will reveal the hidden news syndication networks that can mean the difference between generating less than a handful or thousands of links from your data-driven content. Understanding News Syndication NetworksNot all news publishers are the same. Some publishers behave as hubs, or influencers, generating the stories and content that is then “picked up” and written about by other publishers covering the same or similar beats. Some of the top hubs should be obvious to anyone: CNN, The New York Times, BBC, or Reuters, for instance. Their size, brand authority, and ability to break news make them go-to sources for the origination of news and some of the most common places journalists and writers from other publications go to for story ideas. If your content gets picked up by any of these sites, it’s almost certain that you will enjoy widespread syndication of your story to nearly everywhere that could be interested without any intervention on your part. Unfortunately, outside of the biggest players, it’s often unclear which other sites also enjoy “Hub Status,” acting as a source for much of the news writing that happens around any specific topic or beat. At Fractl, our experience pitching top publishers has given us a deep intuition of which domains are likely to be our best bet for the syndication potential of content we create on behalf of our clients, but we wanted to go a step further and put data to the question. Which publishers really act as the biggest hubs of content distribution? To get a better handle on this question, we took a look at the link networks of the top 400 most trafficked American publishers online. We then utilized Gephi, a powerful network visualization tool to make sense of this massive web of links. Below is a visualization of that network. An interactive version is available here. Before explaining further, let’s detail how the visualization works:
Once visualized, important takeaways that can be realized include the following:
A More Global PerspectiveLast year, a fascinating project by Kalev Leetaru at Forbes looked at the dynamics Google News publishers in the US and around the world. The project leveraged GDelt’s massive news article dataset, and visualized the network with Gephi, similarly to the above network discussed in the previous paragraph. This visualization differs in that the link network was built looking only at in-context links, whereas the visualization featured in the previous paragraph looked at all links. This is perhaps an even more accurate view of news syndication networks because it better parses out site-wide links, navigation links, and other non-context links that impact the graph. Additionally, this graph was generated using more than 121 million articles from nearly every country in the world, containing almost three-quarters of a billion individual links. It represents one of the most accurate pictures of the dynamics of the global news landscape ever assembled. Edge weights were determined by the total number of links from each node to each other node. The more links, the stronger the edge. Node sizes were calculated using Pagerank in this case instead of Domain Authority, though they are similar metrics. Using this visualization, Mr. Leetaru was able to infer some incredibly interesting and potentially powerful relationships that have implications for anyone who pitches mainstream publishers. Some of the most important include:
I would encourage readers to explore this interactive more. Isolating individual publications can give deep insight into what syndication potential might be possible for any story covered. Of course, many factors impact how a story spreads through these networks. As a general rule, the broader the syndication network, the more opportunities that exist. Link Syndication in PracticeOver our 6 years in business, Fractl has executed more than 1,500 content marketing campaigns, promoted using high-touch, one-to-one outreach to major publications. Below are two views of content syndication we have seen as a result of our content production and promotion work. Let’s first look just at a single campaign. Recently, Fractl scored a big win for our client Signs.com with our “Branded in Memory” campaign, which was a fun and visual look at how well people remember brand logos. We had the crowd attempt to recreate well-known brand logos from memory, and completed data analysis to understand more deeply which brands seem to have the best overall recall. As a result of strategic pitching, the high public appeal, and the overall "coolness" factor of the project, it was picked up widely by many mainstream publications, and enjoyed extensive syndication. Here is what that syndication looked like in network graph form over time: If you are interested in seeing and exploring the full graph, you can access the interactive by clicking on the gif above, or clicking here. As with previous examples, node size is related to domain authority. A few important things to note:
Now, let’s take a look at what syndication networks look like when aggregated across roughly 3 months worth of Fractl client campaigns (not fully comprehensive): If you are interested in exploring this in more depth, click here or the above image for the interactive. As with previous examples, node size is related to domain authority. A few important things to note:
Putting it All TogetherNew data tools are enabling the ability to more deeply understand how the universe of news publications and the larger "blogosphere" operate dynamically. Network visualization tools in particular can be put to use to yield otherwise impossible insights about the relationships between publications and how content is distributed and syndicated through these networks. The best part is that creating visualizations with your own data is very straightforward. For instance, the link graphs of Fractl content examples, along with the first overarching view of news networks, was built using backlink exports from SEMrush. Additionally, third party resources such as Gdelt offer tools and datasets that are virtually unexplored, providing opportunity for deep understanding that can convey significant advantages for those looking to optimize their content promotion and syndication process. Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read! SEO via SEOmoz Blog https://moz.com/blog October 29, 2018 at 02:19AM
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Google.com mobile home page no longer just a search box, now shows Google Discover feed https://ift.tt/2z8D7Ce If you visit google.com, Google’s home page, on your mobile device, you will no longer just see a simple search box. You will now see the new “Google Discover” feed that Google announced a month ago. Google Discover is the new name for Google Feed and shows you topics and news items around items that interest you. With Google Discover you can get information about your interests, like your favorite sports team or news site, without searching for them. Here are a screen shots of my Google home page on mobile: Don’t want Google Discover? Well, you can turn it off on your mobile browser by going to the menu bar and then clicking on settings and then Discover and then Don’t show on homepage. Within the Google app, similarly you can select Settings and then Discover and then choose to Turn off Discover. How does Google know what to show me in Google Discover? Google gathers information from your web and app activity, device information, location history, location settings and more. To learn more, see this help document. About The AuthorBarry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics. SEO via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/1BDlNnc October 28, 2018 at 01:52PM
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Tips to be more productive in Google Ads, Bing Ads interfaces https://ift.tt/2CJBbDA NEW YORK — Tips and tricks for working more efficiently in the Google Ads and Bing Ads web interfaces and desktop editors was the topic of conversation at a session during SMX East this week. Speakers Julie Friedman Bacchini, President of Neptune Moon LLC and Ted Ives, CEO of SEMCopilot highlighted new and hard-to-find features and suggested ways to make the most of the tools. Julie Friedman BacchiniFriedman Bacchini said she has not been a fan of the new Google Ads interface, but has worked to find the positives to be more productive in the UI. The Overviews pages, Friedman Bacchini said, are very uselful and a big improvement over the old interface. The recent ability to take action right from some of the cards, such as being able to add or negative search queries and edit or duplicate ads, in the Overviews are particularly helpful for being able to implement optimizations quickly. Friedman Bacchini also had tips for using Keyword Planner. “Want to know what Google thinks your click-through rate should be? Look to the Keyword Planner,” she said. Google shows a CTR estimate for keywords in the “Get search volume and forecasts” report in Keyword Planner. Friedman Bacchini said the numbers should be taken with “a grain of salt,” but can provide a directional benchmark of where to aim. Another tip is to create at-a-glance KPI dashboards in Reports Editor. Using the scorecards option, Friedman Bacchini showed, you can make dashboards that make it easy to compare performance by time period. The notes option is a handy way to highlight certain changes. Friedman Bacchini also provided a useful cheat sheet for Google Display Network campaign objectives. Her full presentation is available below. Ted IvesIn his presentation, Ives pointed out several tips for navigating Bing Ads. Among them is the recommendation to use Bing Ads Editor when porting campaigns over from Google Ads. Using Bing Ads Editor, Ives said, enables you to address all the various settings in bulk during the campaign import. Another unique benefit Bing Ads offers is a negative keyword conflict report. You can apply the report’s findings to Google Ads campaigns as well, Ives pointed out. Ives had several tips for Google Display Network (GDN) settings and optimization and highlighted an HTML5 validator. If you’re uploading rich media creatives for the the GDN, using the validator (link provided in the presentation) can save you from having to wait 24-48 hours to find out from Google that your ads have issues. Ives’ full presentation with many more tips is below. About The AuthorGinny Marvin is Third Door Media's Editor-in-Chief, managing day-to-day editorial operations across all of our publications. Ginny writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, she has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin. SEO via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/1BDlNnc October 28, 2018 at 01:14PM
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8 of the Best SEO Project Management Tools by @annaleacrowe https://ift.tt/2Q6Hlla True story: My first job out of college was as a junior account executive at a local ad agency. I managed anywhere from 7-10 clients at a time. From responding to client emails, ghostwriting email responses for my senior account executive, creating and pitching presentations, coordinating efforts between our teams, and the usual coffee runs, I did it all. Can you guess how I kept this all organized? A legal pad. If these project management tools had existed in 2010, I may have spared myself hours of crying in the parking lot fist-pumping to gangster rap and daydreaming about how I’m going to quit my job. But, how do you know which project management tool is best for managing SEO? Lucky for you, I’ve got the inside scoop. I’ve tested, failed, and succeeded with various project management tools. So, thanks to a little help from my fellow Search Engine Journal writers and readers, here are eight essential project management tools for SEO. The search ends now. The 8 Best SEO Project Management ToolsWith so many SEO project management tools on the market, how are you supposed to choose just one? From Google Docs to Slack to Basecamp — heck, even Linkio manages your link building — there is a tool for just about everything. Your choice of project management tool really depends on what tools you like to use and what you want to accomplish for your clients. But what happens when you have zero budget? Enter: Asana. While Asana isn’t new, it’s completely free with unlimited tasks and to-do lists. Asana is my personal choice for managing SEO projects. I don’t use Asana because I have to. I use it because I like to. Features By allowing users to create lists, set reminders, assign tasks to projects, manage due dates, including team members, and communicate via comments. Asana is a great one-stop-shop for SEO teams looking to manage their workflow while adhering to deadlines. Asana integrates with third-party tools, such as Google Drive or Dropbox, which makes integration seamless. Users can also refer back to previously completed tasks and easily adjust due dates while including the additional functionality of creating recurring reminders. Managers can assign team members to specific projects to ensure that employees are only focused on tasks that pertain to them specifically, which ultimately allows for increased productivity and decreased confusion. Cost The Asana app and website is free to use. The free version allows up to 15 users to create an unlimited number of tasks and projects while having a basic dashboard and search access. For $6.25 per month, teams can have an unlimited number of users as well as advanced features like additional dashboard and search capabilities and more. For much larger organizations, there is an enterprise version as well. Why It’s Good for SEO Pros Asana can be a majorly awesome tool if you’re looking to better organize your processes. In either a large or small team, deadlines and details can get lost resulting in missed deadlines. Asana’s user-friendly and streamlined approach will help teams to delegate the work, never miss a deadline, and disseminate the necessary support documents to the correct tasks and users. Dawn Anderson, managing director at Move It Marketing, uses Asana with TeamWork, Basecamp, Trello, and TeamGantt, for multiple uses including, “Collaboration with team members. Timeframe. Scope management. Transparency. Working with client dev teams.” .@dawnieando uses @Asana, @TeamWork @basecamp & @trello for her SEO project management. http://bit.ly/2stPrwu @sejournalHaving been around for over a decade, Basecamp is considered a reliable tool that excels at giving organizations a high-level view of their teams. Like Asana, Basecamp can help monitor tracking, but also offers additional features like direct messaging chats, centralized document storage, and a scheduling tool. Basecamp aims to take on Slack, Asana, Google Drive, and Dropbox by melding all of their competitors into one robust management tool. Features Designed with the harried business person in mind, Basecamp helps managers and team members stay on top of their professional lives. The app boasts that users will no longer drown in a sea of emails as that feature is already embedded into the app. Additionally, the scheduling and tracking features help ensure teams never again miss a deadline. Another interesting component of Basecamp is that managers can eliminate the need for “check-in” meetings by sending an automated message daily to employees that ask for a recap of what they accomplished that day. Then employees can “tag” teammates in their recaps to explain what they need help with or what they finished. Cost A unique feature of Basecamp is that the app doesn’t charge for an increase in the number of users or projects. So unlike some of its peers, Basecamp charges a flat-fixed fee of $99 a month for a team, no matter the size. Why It’s Good for SEO Pros Managing a client’s SEO consists of many different timelines and action items. Keeping track of client emails, meetings, and central documents is a full-time job. By offering one of the best all-encompassing software solutions, Basecamp helps busy SEO pros stay on top of their entire business by more efficiently checking in with their team and deadlines in one easy to use the app. Casie Gillette, senior director of digital marketing at KoMarketing, uses Basecamp mainly for communicating to clients. “Basecamp is our primary means of communication with clients,” Gillette said. “For any deliverable, it allows an easy way to track the conversation and adjust docs accordingly.” .@caseig shares how @KoMarketing uses @Basecamp for #SEO project management. http://bit.ly/2stPrwu @sejournalOnly available since September 2017, Linkio is one of the latest SEO project management tools to hit the market. This service helps to track link building tasks, which is a cornerstone activity for many SEO professionals. By allowing users to plan, track, automate, and report on link building campaigns, teams can quickly use the software to help make a major impact. Features If you just can’t yet let go of the Google Sheets tracking methods, you will find it refreshing that Linkio doesn’t swear off all spreadsheets. Instead, the software is linked to Google Sheets, allowing users to still use the technology they are already familiar with while removing some of the user error commonly associated with spreadsheet tracking. Another benefit of Linkio is its ability to help team members increase productivity by helping them no matter what stage of the cycle they’re currently involved with. Whether an employee is focused on anchor text planning, campaign setup, delivery management, or another task, Linkio has the ability to help manage no matter where in the process they are. Cost Although the app is new, and therefore fewer people can vouch for it, there is no real downside to giving it a try thanks to its affordable price. Because the app is in its beta phase, it’s free and the company maintains there will always be a free version, even after its beta testing phase. Why It’s Good for SEO Pros As it is geared towards link building, the app was created with SEO professionals in mind. By focusing on a specific aspect of SEO, Linkio was designed to help marketing professionals improve their management of all link building activities, no matter where in the search marketing cycle they occur. 4. TrelloTouted as one of the best collaborative project management tools, Trello helps users to better manage their SEO projects and teams one board at a time. By making it easy to add tasks, due dates, team members, and comments, users can become more organized while still allowing for a high level of flexibility. Plus, it won our #SEJSurveySays. Take a look:
Features One of the advantages of Trello is that teams can manage their workflow in an extremely visual way. Groups can add “Trello Cards” to “Trello Boards” and easily assign team members, due dates, as well as attachments. The interface looks more like a bulletin board, which might be useful if you’re used to writing out tasks by hand. Another key feature of Trello is the ability to follow a workflow from start to finish by easily advancing a card as it adapts throughout the process. For example, content creators can benefit hugely by marking a piece of content as done for each step throughout each part of the content creation process. As an article is written, it can be tracked as it advances from writing, editing, and posting in a visual way by moving the project card through its various stages of completion. You can see how Buffer uses Trello. Cost Like some of the previously mentioned apps, there is a free version which is capped at a 10MB limit when it comes to documents and uploads. For small teams, this free version allows for unlimited boards. For $9.99 a month, Trello gives users an unlimited number of “power-ups,” the option to attach up to 250MB in files and more. Why It’s Good for SEO Pros Are you responsible for several different projects all for one customer? If so, the visual management of Trello makes it easy for to see where they are in terms of their progress. And, it’s great for managing your content strategy. “We use Trello for managing our personal and team tasks, Basecamp for communicating with clients and Slack for communicating internally,” said Julia Shaffer, an SEO associate at Knucklepuck. “The three tools work well together to create an efficient work environment!” .@juliabshaffer talks about how @KnucklepuckDC uses @Trello for #SEO project management. http://bit.ly/2stPrwu @sejournalBy easily moving Trello cards around, you can copy a similar task for a new project or show the project’s progression while keeping track of client notes. Imagine, for a second, that a tool existed that allowed you to never have to check your work email – ever again. Would you use it? (Raises hand). Slack is a communication platform that allows you to chat with other team members, clients, your mom, whoever! It’s an awesome SEO project management tool because Slack integrates with other project management tools like Asana and Trello. My favorite part about Slack? ? Slackbot. Slackbot is like your own personal assistant. I can set reminders, create automated responses, and answer questions. Features Slackbot isn’t the only project management feature for Slack. With Slack, you can create separate channels to communicate to other marketers or chat with clients. And, many use Slack for community management. You can also set reminders. Simply type /remind in a channel and Slackbot will send you a reminder at the day and time you specify. For those of you who enjoy checking things off your list, Slack has a To Do bot that lets you keep your checklist within Slack. Cost Good things often come with price tags, but with Slack, it’s free for most businesses. But, if you want to upgrade, Slack offers an $8 per month and $15 per month plan based on your needs. Why It’s Good for SEO Pros No matter how much or little money you have to invest in SEO, Slack has helped businesses of all sizes keep their hard-earned cash because the majority of features are available with the free plan. With Slack, you can create channels to communicate directly with your SEO clients so you can gain back that time you would spend in hour-long meetings and 10+ email threads. “We use Slack for internal messaging among employees to quickly share links, graphics, and to schedule a meeting,” said Jack Nolan, Digital Marketing Strategist. “We use Flow for project management including project delegation and following up on tasks and processes. Slack and Flow are great because they stress communication, which is the most common hurdle in SEO project management.” See how @jack_nolan uses @Slack for his #SEO project management http://bit.ly/2stPrwu @sejournalFor most of us, Google Calendar is a necessary evil. Regardless of how much you use your calendar, having ongoing Google calendar date with your clients or bossman is an inevitable part of the marketing game. If you fall in the anti-Google Calendar camp, there’s always Microsoft Office 365 that offer similar features. Features Investing in the right calendar tool can bring your SEO work to life for a client that might not be SEO savvy. It’s a necessity; missing a meeting or deadline doesn’t boast well for client relations. Many SEO pros prefer Google Calendar because it allows them to give each project its own calendar and name. For example, I use a format “2018-02 Monthly SEO Pow Wow” so my clients can quickly scan their calendar and know that it’s time for our monthly check-in. Google Calendar also has some pretty awesome sharing functionalities. As part of my onboarding process, I typically ask my clients to share their work calendar with me so I can easily book meetings if needed. One of my favorite features with Google Calendar is the ability to use hashtags. With hashtags, I can search my calendar database for time/date stamps and export as a PDF. Cost The easy-to-use Google Calendar costs absolutely nothing, making them perfect for SEO agencies on a budget. Why It’s Good for SEO Pros Half the battle of organizing your SEO projects is finding the right tool for scheduling meetings with clients, reminders, and managing the project schedule. Sure, I could keep using an excel document, but haphazardly handling deadlines and expectations is no way to keep a client coming back. Instead, I use Google Calendar to get my SEO jobs done. And, it works great as a marketing calendar. The majority of my clients use Google Calendar and plus, it integrates nicely with my Asana tasks. Chances are you’ve probably already done a free trial of some of the tools listed above. But, you’re still reading this for a reason. You want to find The One. Your SEO project management soulmate. The tool you could commit to for life. And, for me, TeamWork is the one and only project management tool I recommend for SEO agencies. It’s my ride-or-die choice. Features Because agencies are going to need flexibility with the number of users, TeamWork allows you to have an unlimited amount of users and multiple people on one task. The ability to have more than one person on one task is a downfall of my first place, Asana. TeamWork also integrates with Google Drive, OneDrive Box, and Dropbox for file storage. And, it works well with your accounting software like Harvest, Freshbooks, and Xero, which makes invoicing clients much easier. The best feature about TeamWork? Repeating tasks. And, I’m not the only one who uses TeamWork that way. “Primarily for assigning tasks to both myself as well as key stakeholders and to organize campaign activities and assets,” said Marc Nashaat. “I use milestones to denote high-level initiatives and create associated task lists that detail more granular components of those initiatives. The task lists are also useful for repetitive efforts and on-boarding activities.” For SEO agencies I’ve worked for in the past, I’ve helped set-up templates within in TeamWork that can be repeated for specific SEO projects. For example, if you’re writing a blog post that is targeting a featured snippet, you can create subtasks within that blog post for steps you need to take to achieve that coveted position zero. These templates can be cloned for new clients. Cost Affordable with competitive integrations, this TeamWork also wields the power of the free plan. From 100MB file space with 5 users and 2 active projects, this free plan should be enough for you. When you’re ready to spread your wings, TeamWork offers a paid plan for $9 a month. This plan comes jam-packed with 100GM of file space, up to 100 users, and unlimited projects making it affordable for most SEO agencies. Why It’s Good for SEO Pros At some point, if you’re a baller, your SEO agency is going to outgrow the limitations of an Asana or Basecamp. And, if you’re a remote SEO agency, you need to make sure your project management tools are on point. Kyle Faber, an SEO consultant in Milwaukee, uses Teamwork mostly for team collaboration. “Audits, reporting, task management, collaboration. All play different roles in getting things done,” he said. “Teamwork is great for collaboration and communication. Trekking helps keep boards, cards, and tasks organized (teamwork has this also, but isn’t as smooth, IMO), and sheets help keep our data and needs organized beyond how task management works. We also use Google Docs as well.” See how @regal_kyle uses @TeamWork for his #SEO project management http://bit.ly/2stPrwu @sejournalTeamWork not only provides a better solution for your employees but for your clients. Working on your SEO projects in Google Docs is the easiest way to to make yourself feel like an Excel genius with knowledge of pivot tables and formulas without actually having to know how to do them. Easy-to-use interface and shared cheat sheets from other SEO pros, make Google Docs a go-to for project planning. (Tell me you miss those days of the #DIV/0! error and I’ll beat Takeru Kobayashi’s hot dog eating contest numbers.) Features With Google Docs, you can do a site audit like Annie Cushing, create an agile SEO project like Distilled, or do some long-tail keyword research like Mitch Monsen. But, I have to say one of the best features of Google Docs is the Add-Ons. The Add-Ons allows you to automate the SEO reporting and research process. For example, Search Analytics for Sheets is my most commonly used tool in Google Docs. It’s a Chrome extension that pulls data from Google Search Console directly into your sheet. So, no more CVS file downloads or manual copy and pasting. Cost Surprise, it’s free! No gimmicks, no surprises. If you have a Gmail account, you already have access to Google Docs. Why It’s Good for SEO Pros Between the cloud collaboration functionality and the SEO-specific Add-Ons, it’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t use Google Docs. “We use a super powerful, fully automated, custom Google Sheets tool for project management,” said Lucy Kirkness, director and head of SEO at Pandable. “We have a set of sheets which ‘talk to each other’ to manage all tasks, deliverables, action items, and hands off client campaign reporting. The Google Sheets PM tool also leverages Google Drive for client management, file storage, and reporting. “Google Sheets is the best tool for our agency as it is fully customizable with endless options for integrating APIs and automation (unlike many project management software). We spend most of our time in Gmail, Gcal, or Gdrive, so this solution enables us to integrate all of our day-to-day processes and communication. Oh, and it’s free!” See how @lucykirkness uses Google Docs for her #SEO project management @pandable http://bit.ly/2stPrwu @sejournalBonus: More SEO Project Management ToolsWhile I listed the majority of project management tools that I’ve worked with in the past for SEO projects, I did get a chance to connect with a few other SEO pros on their favorite project management tools. Yoav Rheims, webmaster at TestPrep, is a big advocate for Microsoft Office 365. “I am using these tools to plan reports, checking audits for some tests I made (A/B, technical, etc.),” Rheims said. “Also, love Office 365 for the one price to get enough tools for my team to work together and how easy it became to connect external tools to Microsoft’s own ones.” And, Milos Dosen, regional manager at Dejan SEO, uses Freedcamp for his daily project management. “We now use Freedcamp for task management,” Dosen said. “It gave us a solution to combine the flow we liked in Trello with the task set up that we love in Basecamp.” I’ve never had experience with Freedcamp, but the tool does offer the same benefits of the other free tools list above. In case you want to try something new, here are a few honorable mentions: 9. FreedCamp 10. Accelo 11. TeamGantt 12. Office 365 13. Airtable 14. ProofHub 15. Jira So, What Are the Best SEO Project Management Tools?If my legal pad was a $1 soft taco after a long work week, any of these project management tools is burrito and margarita on a three-day weekend. Like a reset button for my daily routine, these project management tools make every second of working on my SEO clients tastier. Is there a world of difference in each SEO project management tool? Not really. Are they all efficient and easy-to-use to use leaving you more time to work on what really matters for your SEO clients? Definitely. Keep in mind that all of these project management tools are not for everyone. While Asana, Basecamp, Linkio, and Trello offer different features, they all strive to make it just a little easier for an SEO marketer to do their job. However, I’ve found the best SEO project management tools for me are a combination of Slack, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and Asana. Whether you’re an experienced SEO or you’re new to the business, try out the above project management tools and see how it helps your business. SEO via Search Engine Journal https://ift.tt/1QNKwvh October 28, 2018 at 07:31AM |
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